May 31, 2013 -- BeiGene, a Beijing biopharma startup, has out-licensed the ex-China rights for a pre-clinical cancer drug to Merck Serono, the drug discovery arm of Germany’s Merck KGaA. To date, BeiGene has been in the news for acquiring China rights to western-developed drugs. But in this case, BeiGene discovered the second-generation BRAF inhibitor itself. According to BeiGene, the compound could begin clinical trials in China later this year. That means BeiGene, which was founded in 2010, will have completed China preclinical development in the remarkably short time of three years. More details...